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Why Germany's energy agency is warning against electric heaters

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Why Germany's energy agency is warning against electric heaters
A woman bundles up with a blanket next to an electric heater. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Philipp Schulze

Many consumers are looking to save money amid Germany's energy crisis - but electric heaters have the opposite effect, said Klaus Müller, head of Germany’s Federal Network Agency (BNA), on Tuesday.

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Fearing a shortage of gas, many consumers around Germany stocked up on electric heaters in recent months, with several shops reporting they quickly sold out of the electrical devices.

But turning to an electric heater instead of regular gas heating is “an expensive and dumb idea,” said Müller in an exclusive interview with the Tagesspiegel on Tuesday. "Fortunately, hardly anyone has done that."

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Fan heaters cause enormous costs

But why are electric heaters so bad? According to Germany’s Stiftung Warentest, most heaters are “deceitful” due to their relatively low price tag of €50 to €100.

READ ALSO: Why electric fan heaters in Germany could make the energy crisis worse

That may seem cheap at first, but many people forget about the price of electricity: consumers pay up to 70 cents per hour with a fan heater plugged into the wall socket. 

Anyone who then runs the device for a few hours every day quickly ends up with operating costs of several hundred euros over a period of several months.

Energy supply remains stable

Müller reassured Germans that the supply of natural gas by pipeline remains stable. Germany also continues to open more harbourside terminals to import natural gas, steadily replacing Russian supplies.

“We are much better prepared today than we were in the summer. We now get gas from various sources, we will soon have three terminals for liquefied gas, from Norway and Holland, we are well supplied via Belgium and also via France," said Müller.

Gas storage facilities are also well stocked for the time being, he added. In mid-November, the BNA announced that these storage facilities were “100 percent full”, partially due to the fact that many Germans had cranked up their heat less - or not at all - amid an unusually warm autumn.

READ ALSO: 'Over half' of Germans heating homes less or not at all

Müller also said that Germans did not have to worry about blackouts - which some politicians had voiced concerns about over the summer and autumn - due the diversified sources of energy. 

Heating costs, however, continue to go up around Germany. The government passed a massive €200 billion energy relief plan, with aid set to be distributed to individual households starting in January. 

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Vocabulary

Electric heater - (der) Heizlüfter

Deceitful - tückisch

Consumer/consumers - (der) Verbraucher/(die) Verbraucher

Power outlet/socket - (die) Steckdose

We’re aiming to help our readers improve their German by translating vocabulary from some of our news stories. Did you find this article useful? Let us know.

 

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